Month: October 2017

The second release of 2017 from Jason van Wyk, after the re-issue of 2016’s “Attachment” is “Opacity”. I enjoyed the former, but am very much impressed by the follow-up album again released by the flawless Home Normal label.

Label boss Ian Hawgood has this to say about both the album and artist “Whilst he continues to be known for this work, his most recent output has seen him focus on his beautiful piano playing, intertwined with his subtle sound design and wide open soundscapes. It is an album of such incredible beauty, patience, openness, soul, and subtlety, that we can’t think of a comparative album by anyone, on any label, in years that comes close to the calming serenity of ‘Opacity’. Whilst this might seem like hyperbole to some, I just ask you to sit down, let go, and listen to this pure work of art as it really is very special indeed. Alongside the alluring dusty-starred photography of Gregory Euclide, Jason has created an album that is timeless and bold; a freeing work of piano-focused tenderness, and huge luminous pads.”

That is a big call for a label boss to make and while every listener will have his or her interpretation about the album, in this case Ian was right and this is simply a very beautiful piece of work that is a pleasure to listen to.

“Shimmer” slow unfolding ambience descends upon the listener building up incriminantly with shimmering drones and understated minimal piano which starts to give the melodic tone to the track. The piano is understated as the listener’s attention is focused on the drones and electronics that are bubbling around. Once the drones drop out the bubbling electronica and piano are all that remain and fuses the organic elements with the purely electrical ones. A subtle opening track that doesn’t show its hand too much, but hints at what is to come.

“Blinded” eno-esque drones of a grand scale float with a siren like sound are supported by lower drones giving depth which lead into the plaintive flowing piano, recorded in the same style as the “Attachment” album with soft padding. A rather brief track that conveys much emotion and could easily take on a ‘epic’ life if the piano line was followed further.

“Until Then” another delightful brief track that has a beginning that utilizes silence between the keys which gives the track a feeling of hope with a hint of melancholy. The pace of the track picks up gently with the playing in a flowing style with more of an emphasis on the lower notes that are joined by thoughtful higher notes that provide this melancholy/hope hybrid, but seem not to tip in either favor.

“Recollect” is where van Wyk’s trance background begins to show its influence. A collection of weather – like Synth drones are joined by short prog like Synth stabs with a percussive edge briefly enter the sound scape before being replaced with orchestral drones that bring swells of sound. Minimal piano enters into the track for a short section before the track has another short Sci-fi/prog Synth section. For a piece running a little over four minutes, there are several movements that divide the track up, but don’t give it a split personality.

“Glow” comes across a soundtrack piece. Distant Synth drones awash with ambience slowly unfurl with piano entering the mix with a feeling of reflection to it. It’s almost as if in a scene from a movie a person is looking back on things that have happened in their life. The piano is the center of the track, but the tone is a perfect accompaniment to the drones and vice versa.

“Clouds” solo piano that paints a picture of gentle melancholy that has drones that start attaching themselves to the piano and teach out to take over the track. A grainy, storm – like muted drone provides the environmental feeling of the track as if you are leaving earths atmospheres and heading through the clouds mentioned in the track. There is static buzzing with an icy drone befitting the title.

“Beneath” this start to get almost symphonic with the opening of this track. Grand drones arc across an undercurrent of semi-buried noisier drones which leads into the soundtrack composer realm once more. There is definitely a widescreen approach to van Wyk’s construction of tracks. The levels and depth are shown with introduction of the piano which sits center aurally surrounded by swirling ambient drones which flesh out the sound and light flickers of electronics that are best suited to headphone listening.

“For Now” a brief interlude of a track that manages to include several elements in it’s all too brief seventy-four second length. Glitchy clicks and cuts sounding like detritus of broken down electronics meet string drones and trance like keyboard progressions alongside swathes of ambience, padded piano keys and some sort of crunchy field recordings. The track could easily go in many directions, but is more like a vignette than a full track as it’s almost over as it has just begun.

“Weightless” wall of drones ushering in Synth prog progressions that oscillate in an ambient fashion before fading to almost silence. Siren – like haunting drones cloud the air with melody before the synths return with urgency (slightly reminiscent of the soundtrack of Stranger Things) and with progressions that change in tone and colour, becoming more relaxed before fading and have a feeling of virtuosity that traverses the piece.

“Clearing” there is an under current to the drones which gives you a feeling of an extreme environment with a haunting tone to it. Like a glacial or frozen area where everything is seen through a sepia tone, blurring the vision and almost removing or at least affecting one of the senses. The drones fill up the sound, but have the variation to be more than one-dimensional and have an almost sing-song melodic feel to their sections.

“Hidden” glacial undertones, darker drones, field recordings and emotive strings bear weight to the piece. The glacial sections give an austere feeling under the strings which are striking. There is a definite haze to the track that contours up a storm or something impending. The darker drones have weight and support both the strings and glacial elements like a bookend where parts are nicely sandwiched between.

“Eyes Shut” controlled and solo unfurling the track begins growing with drones before pulsing prog Synth changes the focus of the pace of the track. The Synth flutters about left and right with muted drones, static haze joining it before a drop out section dramatically changes the electronics to a loop based section of electronica joined by ambient drones and prog Synth with static returning and increasing in its presence. This section leads to a more Synth based ambient section returning with an electronica feel with bass elements that drive this section. The pace of the piece alongside the haze is what makes this track laid back and dare say, introspective in nature.

“Opacity” refers to the lacking of transparency or translucency which can be compared to the pieces on the album where there are multiple elements. One of the synonyms of Opacity is haziness which can be occasionally heard in tracks like “Clouds” and the beginning of “For Now” for example. For “Opacity” van Wyk has taken on some of the elements of “Attachment” added some from his previous work and taken it further. The shorter pieces that come across as Soundtrack-esque is a something that would be interesting to see van Wyk detour into as I think he would pull it off with aplomb. A mention should be made of the cello and violin of Brittany Dilkes, Gavin Clayton and Lynn Donson for their important contributions to the album. Recommended.

“Hymn Binding” is the third FTMOTS album following “Woven Tide” (Experimedia, 2012), “Into the Well” (Fluid Audio, 2015) and soundtrack album”Menashe” (Wayfind, 2017) under their own name. The names Aaron Martin and Dag Rosenqvist should be familiar to readers of this blog due to their releases on labels such as Preservation, Under the Spire, Dronarivm, Miasmah, Eilean and others. This album was mastered by the trusty ears of 12k boss Taylor Deupree and finds it well at home on the Lost Tribe Sound label.

The label state “At the core, From the Mouth of the Sun’s sound is comprised of cello,piano, acoustic guitars, lap steel, banjo, ukulele and pump organ. Yet with Hymn Binding they’ve allowed those acoustic sources to changeshape, at times turning them into something that more resembles synths or digitally rendered sounds. They do this, not as a means of disguising them, or really wanting them to sound like synths, but to bring out new layers from already existing timbres. Rosenqvist mentions, “There’s something very beautiful and rewarding to working with acoustic sound sources. Because when you record them, you never know what you’re going get, and you can never repeat it exactly the same way. The wood in the instrument changes from air pressure and with different temperatures. You change your sitting position from one take to another and all of a sudden it sounds slightly different. You move the microphone or you move something in the room and it sounds slightly different. Acoustic sound sources allow for chaos to be a part of the creative process, allowing for something you can never fully control.”

My first thought when having a cursory run through listed is how great the sound is. You can get albums that have issues with mixing or mastering, where the sound is compromised because of the multiple elements and where depth, light and shade are muddied up. This is definitely not the case in regards to this album. It is a treat for the ears, the vibrancy of the instruments, the patience, the depth, it’s all there.

“A Healer Hidden” kicks off the album with what sounds like an affected banjo giving a circulation droning sound which is joined slowly by long multiplied violin lines which cut through the sound as static builds up to breaking point before dissipating and slowly droning out. This brief piece is almost an intro, but will give an indication of terrain that will be covered throughout the album.

“A Breath to Retrieve Your Body” Backwards recordings that are like watching something glitch in reverse and sound a bit like a distant and faded memory, open this track with Basinski-like ambience that are supporting by slow placed drones that sound like they are created using some sort of brass instrument which take over the sound as the backwards recordings fade away. The brass drones are joined by more urgent emotive violin that has a sense of intent to it. The two main elements – the brass and the violins are juxtaposed to each other in both their musical intensity and the emotional intensity. The more orchestral morose brass drones for me are the highlight. Towards the end the static returns for a tiny section as the violin disappears and the brass drones slowly retreat to the shadows with a quiet, relaxed feel.

“The First to Forgive” uses silence to effect as the track slowly starts off very quietly with string drones before a shimmering, echoing sound like a ripple on a pond radiating out. Martin coaxes violin lines from his instrument that convey both melancholy and hope. Gentle guitar pieces with a post rock feel, field recordings adorned by static, possibly some buried piano and rolling instrumentation flesh out the track which could be described as an Ambient/Post Rock/ Drone marriage of sound. The layers and elements are given space and time and are used for a reason and not always as a layered part. Elements like shimmering key-like instrument section for example become the first focal point before leading into the guitar being more central.

“Light Blooms in Hollow Space” distant and old sounding repeating minimal piano gently plays to your left while on your right hand side your ears are met with an accordion drone (or pump organ) so captivating that you havens noticed that the piano has changed tempo and is joins by spindly guitar playing which is also joined by possibly cello and other string instruments creating a rather cramped sonic section that is more freeform in it’s playing and the clashing sound than the previous tracks. Elements disappear almost disappear as quickly as they arrived add we are left once more with the repetitive piano and this time cello as opposed to accordion.

“The Last to Forgive” opens with delicate piano lines with deeply mournful violin and a section of distorting field recordings holding the mid section of the sound palate under which cello that appears to be following the piano lines, gives the track the deeper tones. The sound of the piece gets quieter and quieter which is similar in the beginning of “The First to Forgive”. Slowly it retreats into silence fading away with field recordings of a droning nature and the piano only remaining.

“Risen, Darkened” is where the duo get epic. Silence welcomes long haunting drones that are buried deeply as if in a tunnel and this closer you get the more pronounced they sound. The drones inhabit different levels of sound giving high, middle and lower layering, but are also moving at the same time which makes them multidimensional. Guitar, Piano, Cello, static recordings, percussion and other elements build up together and become symphonic and chugging in a way that is like a drone/orchestral version of Japanese post rockers Mono. They bring the music to the cusp of overflowing and carefully restrain it in. The last-minute and a half sees the intensity stripped back with minimal piano, classical like guitar, minor drones, scattered field recordings gently bring the track to rest. A clear highlight track of the album.

“Roads” slowly flowing and unwinding stark piano lines are joined by layered and duplicated violin and cello lines, while a separate cello section cuts through and another violin has a saw like approach as it cascades across the music and has an Americana feel to it (think fellow LTS musician William Ryan Fritch). This is joined by a complimentary twanging guitar sound which leads the track in an old western / southern gothic vibe with screeching and static field recordings which add to the ominous quality of the music and move it into epic territory once more. And like the preceding trick they pull back the reins just before falling of the cliff.

“Grace” the Pump Organ/Accordion slowly drones emitting a sound reminiscent of the dawn of a new day. It oscillates and electronic noise of an indistinguishable nature scatter around cutting across the sound in a cut up but buzzsaw fashion. A melodic sound appears deep in the mix which reveals itself once the piano comes out from under the cloak of sound. The sound starts changing with more string drones replacing dominance of the electronics and they compliment the piano which was more at odds than aligned to the electronics. The timbre of the piano changes to one of more chime like than the one that wrestled with the electronics. Slowly the track fades away, ambience, electronics, drones gently retreat to the silence. “Grace” is fitting finale to the album.

From The Mouth Of The Sun have delivered a stunning album and have carried on Lost Tribe Sound’s outstanding the Prelude to the Decline series. They show how to make deeply textured music seem effortless and reward the listener with an album to enjoy endlessly. Totally recommended.

Sound in Silence come through with another delightful release, this time from Santiago Lizon, based in Madrid, Spain. Since 2005 and bringing together influences as diverse as IDM, Shoegaze, Post-Rock and Classical, Santiago has released three albums and three EP’s on labels such as n5MD, Platforma-LTW, Persona-Isla, Add-Sensor and Escala.He has previously contributed to the Absent Without Leave remix collection “Faded Photographs” with the track “Balloons in the Sky”

The label describe the album, his fourth as “a wonderful collection of seven melodic and emotive tracks with a total duration of 35 minutes. Each track is built slowly up with various elements blending nicely together, including complex glitchy beats, subdued bass, multiple layers of resonant synths and indistinct dreamy vocals. The final result is one of Crisopa’s best works to date, characterized by its beautiful chord progression and densely layered arrangements with lush shoegaze touches and drifting ambient swells.”
It’s recommended for fans of Boards Of Canada, Ulrich Schnauss, Port-Royal and Tycho.

“Bird Song Reincarnation” light intertwined drone tones wrap around with melodic electronics that form into a lightly throbbing based line which are joined by handclapped adorned percussion. BOC style vocals enter the mix barely decipherable to add another element. They are effected vocoder like and follow the melodic lines. Bird sounds appear as the track varies from an ambient section to an electro section. Synth stabs, bubbling underneath electronics, vocal lines and percussion share the same space at various levels before a pastoral ambience ends the track.

“I am the Lord of the Ruins” spacey ghostly ambience swirls while a delicate crystalline Synth line starts to slowly come out of the shadows to become the main element. Brought forward in an Ambient section the percussion and Synth explode into the track with layered Synth and drones, childlike sounds and a scattered drum section. A symphonic section similar to that of the ambient section before it propels the percussion once more with the subdued vocals entering into the track with the only discernible word being “Discover”. A cut up string section adds to the layers of sound with an orchestral feel. The track enters the final section with an influx of cymbals and all the elements from the earlier sections join together and lead out with an outro of electronic and acoustic drones with the chime like sounds and faint vocals disappearing into the ether.

“Fast Dive” electronic blips and blops float up like air bubbles in a bed of ambience. Cut up percussion that rattles around is accompanied by a rumbling bass line, cut up vocal lines and vibrating electro sections. The music then turns into a muted negative sound with elements buried together before rising out with the electro section taking center stage over the percussion and ambience. A melodic section of watery Synth ambience and vocals leads to a pure ambient section that is beatless and leads to the end of the track. The track shows a nice variance of the various elements that have appeared in the album so far.

“Serene Option” looped glitch haunted tones and bird song are joined by jazz like drumming and classic BOC style Synth tones. The elements are joined by electronic percussion that gently propels the track forward and into a vibraphone like section with cut up electronics. The synths give a classic melodic IDM feel to the track that are gentle, but interesting. For the first half the percussion is more subdued, but this changes in the second half where they are more dominant and are joined by glitch beats and vocals. There is a real sense of freedom and positivity in the track.

“Melting Wax Sculptures” makes the beats the feature of this track. It starts off with beats, bass line, Synth progressions and a backwards sample to be joined by metallic percussion, more Synth and the distant affected indecipherable vocals. The beats together have an almost breakbeat like fashion to them which compliments the ambience that is created in the track with the synths and bassline, and propels the track. Towards the end the percussion returns to the jazzy feel of the previous track.

“Fluorine Cold Flames” dark rumbling industrial noises crash over Synth lines and arching drones before a funky-ish bassline is laid under broken beat percussion, distant vocals and beds of ambient Synth. The track has a subdued feeling like there is a Sunday morning coming down vibe to it. It feels laid back, but without being boring before the intensity of all the elements increase equally before it slowly starts relaxing out with Synth ripples and the return of those industrial elements from the start.

“Irradiating Nucleus” A bassline with an attached crystalline Synth drone loops along with a measured pace that is joined by percussive sounds, drum loops, vocoder affected vocals and Synth explorations. The bassline starts to get a bit menacing with its fuzzed out intensity until a cut up Synth, piano and jazzy electronic percussion section splits it up before returning it to the fore. The bassline reminds me of a Graham Massey remix of Bjork’s “Army of Me” with its almost Dubby feel. The bass has a slow, but heavy feel which holds the low-end and the percussion which has a distinct jazz like feel which gives it a rhythmical texture that compliments the bass and the synths.

There are no standouts on the album for me. That is because it is consistently good. There are elements that appear several times over (like the affected vocals) which can make the music a bit samey, but that can attributed to a fair amount artists. What Lizón has created here is an enjoyable, bright listen. It’s the aural equivalent of opening the curtains and letting the light shine in. If you like the artist references at the start of the review, then you will enjoy this album.

Greek label Sound in Silence run by Absent Without Leave’s George Mastrokostas (how about a new AWL album George?) isn’t a stranger to bigger names on their roster. They have released albums by the likes of Bvdub, Strafænn Hákon as well as a bunch of other names such as Hessien, Good Weather For An Airstrike, Caught in the Wake Forever to name a few. The latest big name to add to the roster is Odd Nosdam aka David P. Madson who is best known as a member of cLOUDDEAD and Co-founder of the hip hop label Anticon. He also runs the Burnco Records label that has digitally released this with different art.

The label describes the release as “The sound of LIF can be described as the continuation and expansion of “Music For Raising“(Ed note: Madison’s 2015 album on the Baro label), blistering with analog loop chains that soak in the resonance of tremolo, tape-delay, space echo, distressors, and many other trusted devices in Odd Nosdam’s toolkit. Very little computer processing occurred during the making of LIF, relying heavily on hand triggered elements that cycle into an endless bridge between pulsing loops and shape shifting overtones. Imagine a horizon where sunrays find traces of openness around gloomy backdrops of clouds, organically centered as a jump off point into another realm of existence.” A source of inspiration was “Dlp6” from William Basinski’s “The Disintegration Loops IV”.

The album begins with “MIG” which sets the tone for the rest of the album with its hazy loops and repeating tones. Unlike the Basinski albums (which appear to be fully loop based), the album appears to be a more electronic experience with the use of echo effects and the ambient crystalline structure.

“RAI” follows the tones in “MIG” and adds a dubby feel to the music with the pulses between the chiming loops. At times the music retreats like if affected by weather. Coincidentally the album was created during January and March this year, when the Bay Area was going through a particularly wet period and this is reflected in the feel of this track.

The title track “LIF” introduces a darker atmosphere to the previous tracks with certain elements like the chimes being deeper in the mix and the haze being increased. Going with the weather/environment theme you can see a change in the surroundings. Utilizing loops there is an amount of degradation which adds to the sonic texture of the piece and follows the continuation of the album.

“AIN” is the shortest track on the album and is clearly affected by a rain storm. The predominant feature of the track is the ever present haze which is looped relatively quickly giving a pulsing wave of sound that is opposite to equally paced melodic dusty loops.

“SES” sees haunted distant tones with tremolo and echo that soar out under the dubby underground and hazy looped foreground. The use of the tremolo sounds after “AIN” gives the feel of post rain light coming through the gloom.

“KEL 1” what sounds like twangs guitar is looped alongside the dubby haze that cuts thought the track. A distorted/noisy undertone prevails and begins to cloak the track in static noise. “KEL II” is like reprise of the previous track but unlike the previous one, the static distorted noise encompasses in all making the dubby section fight for the small section that it is featured.

“REN” brings throbbing drones that sound like affected accordion or some sort of squeeze box like instrument in the way that they seem to be taking a breath before starting to again. There is an underlining static that feels random compared to the previous loops and is more of an accompanying sound that a feature.

“TRO” sees fractured ambience that has a definite nostalgic feel to it. It has chime like tones that are looped in a melodic rhythm while clipped static and haze cut through the track quite quickly breaking it up. The fractured ambience in a way can be reminiscent of Oval in it’s cut up and looped, yet melodic feel. The mix if the track allows elements to come com and centre them retreat giving it some variation to the others.

“BOM” continues with the pulsing haze and dubby loops, but is further down in the mix with a different tone front and centre. The features of the track are consistent in the loops and the pacing to the rest of the album, but tone is an ever so slightly darker one which makes the difference. I am not sure of the source instrument but it has features that remind me of small sections of “Isn’t Anything” era My Bloody Valentine guitar tones.

The nature of looped based music is that it is going to repetitive, this is a given. With this release Odd Nosdam has put his touch on it and his own impressions via the influence of the weather. Reading the accompanying text on the labels bandcamp page helps like listening notes and gives more information to the listener on construction of the album.

Italian duo How To Cure Our Soul present their fourth album “Mare” on the US label Sequel (home to Forest Management, Dominic Coppola, Celer) as a digital and CD release (apparently available soon) with a DVD-r version being self released. The Italian duo of Marco Marzuoli (who started the project as a solo vehicle) and Alessandro Sergente are both graduates of the Academy of Fine Arts and consider themselves as an audio/visual project. Their previous releases have appeared on labels such as Low Point (UK), Audiobulb (UK), Setola di Maiale (IT).

For this album they are joined by Rossano Polidoro (Triac, ex TU M’) while the album was recorded in Città Sant’Angelo during the summer of 2016.

The duo described it as “a composition for electric guitars, freeze pedals, field recordings and tapes. also collaborated to the realization of the album. Mare aims to be a minimalist immersion into an isolationist sea. All sounds and images of the sea have been recorded on the Adriatic Sea (Silvi Marina, Abruzzo, Italy; autumn 2015). Throughapersonal use of digital and analog instruments, How To Cure Our Soul reflects about philosophy, landscapes (natural and human) and communication, producing videos, music and photos, personal outcomes of the reality’s reinterpretation.

The album’s promo information (and indeed the text featured in the bandcamp release page) allude to the power of the sea in a quote from author Jules Verne. As mentioned above the feature of “Mare” are field recordings of water from the Adriatic Sea (which also is featured on the albums art). The swirling, choppy water is the centre to the piece with a constant flow, the occasional sound of someone walking or splashing in it. The track starts with an almost Richard Chartier like beginning of near silence with field recordings of the sea first being heard around the one and a half-minute mark. The sound appears to be layered or possibly recorded in a section where there is a lot of activity. Around the five-minute mark is where the drone elements come in. A long drawn out pulsing drone follow a straight line of sound around the water and bird sounds which are still dominating the soundscape.

Just before the nine minute mark a more intense looping and oscillating drone starts to dominate the sound sphere with high level arching under which the field recordings remain at the same volume and the original drone increases in intensity. The oscillating drone has a melodic component to it while still having a depth of volume as it threatens to take over the piece. Twelve minutes in sees an accompanying melodic section added which adds another layer with a glassy feel to it, like it’s a combination of Synth drones and the howl of wind, it is has that sort of quality.

Approaching the half way mark of the thirty-two and a half-minute piece the intensity of the drones increases to just being more intense than the field recordings. The drones work together not as intertwined, but rather as layers, each built on top of each other, but with the fluctuations of sound and changing intensity. While other structured drone pieces with field recordings can lean toward a dark ambient or pure ambient form, “Mare” straddles both with the intensity, but also the melody.

With the last eight or so minutes of the track remaining, the structure and sound of the drones changes to a lighter one and the intensity changes to become more reflective. Towards the end, like the beginning the long drawn out drone and field recordings remain till the last two minutes are purely water sounds.

Having a thirty-two and a half-minute single piece for an album can be challenging especially using a relatively small palate of sounds. That said How To Cure Our Soul manage to make it work with their drone construction. I would have like to have heard maybe more variation in the field recordings, but I understand the concept behind it in its importance to the track.

Home Normal return to the vinyl format for the first time since 2013’s Fabio Orsi and Pimmon LP. This time around it is a collaborative 7″ by New York trio Sontag Shogun and Japanese sound artist Moskitoo. The 7″ designed for the Portugal/Spain tour of Sontag Shogun comes in an edition of 500 copies and Digital and is released on November 15.

For the uninitiated (myself included) Sontag Shogun is a Brooklyn based “collaborative trio that makes use of analog sound treatments and nostalgic piano compositions in harmony to depict abstract places in our memory. Textures built from organic materials such as sand, slate, boiling water, brush and dried leaves, both produced live in performance and recorded to weathered 1/4″ tape, warm up the space between lush piano themes. All of which is abstracted coolly in the reflective digital space of treated vocals and a live processed feed from the piano.” Moskitoo is a Japanese sound artist and vocalist. So far she has released two albums on Taylor Deupree’s 12k label as well as collaborating with FilFla as well as contributing a number of remixes.

Home Normal describe this release as Post Classical / Electronic Ambient and that is truly what this release is, a combination of both those genres. With the exception of Ian Temple’s piano playing and Moskitoo’s vocals it is hard to attribute who is creating the remaining sounds. Jeremy Young uses oscillators, tapes and piezo mics, Jesse Perlstein on laptop, field recordings and Moskitoo on organic instruments. But together the four artists create something quite special and fluid.

“The Things We Let Fall Apart” – The track starts out with an oscillating drone that is joined by minimal piano before manipulated electronics and field recordings join in to give the piece a real feel of the fusion of the genres. Leading up to the introduction of Moskitoo’s vocals, the level of ambient drones and crunchy electronics increases, with the vocals being initially manipulated like the electronic component. Moskitoo has a breathy vocal style that has a distant feel and nostalgia to it which allows it to appear of floating above the music. The vocal section itself is not long (it is roughly the final minute of the piece that the singing really takes place) and could probably have music either side of it, but it works perfectly with the mix. Piano, electronics and field recordings add extra innocence to the track (especially if you are not fluent in Japanese). Listening to the track you realise that all the elements contained in the song are all included for a reason, there is nothing superfluous in the piece.

“The Thunderswan” starts with Temple’s solo piano with its rich melancholic tone that is accompanied by fragile electronic glitches and pieces of manipulated piano. Moskitoo’s vocals float in as the electronic filigree increases in its presence. The tones from each part – the piano, electronics and vocals are all separate in their mood, texture and color. The electronics start filling up the sound with a grainy, glitchy swarm like feel. The piano increases in intensity as does the manipulated sounds which are presumably processed via laptop. The ambient component comes from Moskitoo’s vocals which eschew words for a section to created stunning vocal drones, before returning to conventional singing with the vocal drones accompanying the singing. The electronics start to become noisier in nature and come from a different perspective to that of the piano which has become grander in nature and has started to be played in a rolling style. Musically this track is quite lush, epic and uplifting.

On this single Sontag Shogun and Moskitoo have ably demonstrated how to collaborate. The way they have been able to fuse their music together and construct it results in an enjoyable listen. Hopefully this is not the only collaboration that the four of them come up with. Totally Recommended.

Naviar Records is London Based label who describe themselves as “a community and label that explores the intersection between music and traditional Japanese poetry.” They have been releasing music since March 2014 and these two releases are their latest.

“Gomel, 1986” is an extension of the “Clouded Lands” show (in conjunction with the art collective Food of War) about the 31st anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster and was “a show which aimed to raise awareness on the consequences that such catastrophic events bring in people’s culture and everyday life. For this event, Naviar’s community had to recreate sounds, atmospheres and moods of one of the areas which were mostly affected by the disaster: the region of Gomel, in Belarus”

Each artist had to re-imagine the atmospheres and moods of the time and the recordings were made within a two-week period. The release is available as a limited Cd-r (50 copies) and digital.

“Black Rain” by Dirigent opens the album. Dirigent is San Francisco classically trained composer Chris Christensen who is drawn toward analog electronics and classic tape-studio techniques. The track starts with echoing percussion, water like sounds, electronics, the chiming of clocks, dark ambient drones and recordings of phone calls and media reports in Russian. I haves no idea of what is being said, but there is a certain amount of alarm in the voices, but not overly distraught. The music borders Dark Ambient and Industrial and has an unsettling edge to it. Electronics come in and or in a wave-like fashion possibly inspired by waves of radiation.

“Tjernobyl” by Robert Rizzi. Rizzi is a Danish/American Composer and Sound artist, Master of Electronic Music Composition from DIEM, Aarhus. Robert teaches Electronic Music and Sound art at SDMK Music Conservatoire in Esbjerg, Denmark. He works primarily with field recordings, found scores and improvised instrumental pieces, very often in collaborative site specific installations and compositions with visual artists. Field recordings of rain/ a storm with scattershot sounds are joined by a siren like drone, bass, minimal piano and electronics. The focus is on the field recordings, but the minimal nature of the bass and piano alongside the electronics really brings out the post apocalyptic feel of the music.

“Black Clouds” by Earthborn Visions. Earthborn Visions is a project born out of wide-ranging influences, with a particular affinity for any music that positively influences perception and thinking. They explore juxtapositions of sounds and styles, melodies and noise, planned and random acts, field recordings and electronics, analog and digital. Synth drones slowly unfurl melodically before picking up a darker wind-blown edge and giving a feeling that compliments the title. There is a subtlety to the track, so it’s not too literal in its intentions.

“Cage of Obscured Rain” by IF. IF is Matteo Gazzolo an actor, director, musician, sound designer (founder of Soundethers). He’s been teaching theatrical techniques and text analysis since 1999. He organizes trainings and lectures on acting styles. Matteo lives in Sardinia (Italy) where he plays his stage productions, focusing on the relationship between music, sound technologies (live electronics) and speech. The use of rain sounds return with a more obvious use of weather sourced field recordings. The drones that join are fractured as if they are too also affected by the weather. The drones start to build in intensity and the tone tends to go in a more screechy noise affected way. The track heads into a mix of dark ambient and more melodic fusion with the two opposing styles mixing up in layers and alternating in dominance. The ending of the track is where the field recordings and dark ambience takes hold.

“I Forgot Everything” by In die Ferne. In die Ferne’s first musical experiences date back to the late 80s — playing the guitar in an utterly forgotten noise combo that only recorded 2 tracks. He started making electronic music in the early 2000s. Minimal drones and tones are central to this track. Repetition or loops sees the motif replayed as the drones, while noisy have that classical Eno style to them. The rough / noisy is to the tracks detriment and stands out against the clearer recordings.

“Aftermath” by Jesús Lastra. Lastra aka Jalastram/Flat Stone is a Madrid-based self-taught artist from Maracaibo, Venezuela. He began to experiment with audio editing software in 2007. Then, he started composing ambient music, or more specifically, soundscape, drone and experimental music within the electronic genre. Slow drawn out drones are joined by string drones and a low rumble. The sound is full, but also mournful.With a title like “Aftermath” the artist is clearly trying to convey the post disaster desolation of the area with the heaviness of the drones, the fusion of the elements (strings, piano) and the mood of the times.

With a compilation that comes with a theme or an inspiration there are bound to be cross over of source inspiration eg: field recordings of rain, that said while there are similarities, the artists are able to put their own touches to give a little variation to each piece. The two final tracks probably act as the weaker and stronger pieces on the album. If you like thematic albums this may be for you.

Paolo Mascolini records as sōzuproject. He has released a handful of albums and ep’s. This release on cassette (edition of 59 copies) and digital is his latest. This is the first time he has come across my radar.

The label states that this was “Recorded between December 2016 and February 2017, Breath Slowly describes the composer’s experience while cycling off-road in the mysterious Italian Dolomites in 2016. Divided into two acts, the album depicts an imaginary journey of self-discovery inspired by these desolate and overwhelming mountain landscapes.”

“Ascent” starts off with eerie rumbling, echoing recordings of some sort before layered and occasionally fractured drones arc across the soundscape. Staccato strings cut across before a deep Bassoon like bass drone enters and vibrates out. The music starts to fill out with the strings and the bass thump being joined by noisier sections. The music oscillates with looped electronics joining the fray. As the track continues on the intensity is lifted. If the intention is to convey the intensity of ascending mountains on bicycle and also the desolation of the area, then it is succeeded with the slow build up which dissipates to a more electronica like ending.

“Descent” the drones that start this track have a slightly croaky sound to them as if they are made of field recordings of frogs. A buzzing drone enters the picture and loops with a low-level electronic section barely audible underneath. The electronics start to build up in the mix and their fast paced nature is at odds with the slow intense drones, before they start to challenge the drones which are getting noisier and distorted. There is a subtle wall of noise/ orchestral nature to the drones in the way they sound. The end of the track is like reprise of the beginning with some of the elements featuring again with the electronics still fighting for position.

I have to admit having an expectation to how the tracks would sound in relation to the theme which was completely opposite to the end result. I expected “Ascent” to be intense , which it was, in relation to climbing a mountain by bicycle and ‘Descent” being a more laidback enjoying the scenery feel, which it wasn’t. If you like long form noisy layered drone, then this release might be your cup of tea.